In fact, I can make dinner at home in less than the amount of time it takes me to drive to a restaurant , get seated, and drive home!

But you're not factoring in the cost of the house you cook it in, the cost of your stove, the cost of the gas you use to cook, the time it took you to go to the store and shop, the time it takes you to clean up, etc. etc.

I said it earlier in the thread, but what you are really arguing is opportunity cost. So if the cost of brewing is that you don't wash your car, go ahead and factor that in. But you can't assume that you're going to be paid a salary for all of your waking hours.

But that's just it. If you think you are starting a hobby to save money on beer you are wrong. People who spend hours on brewday and weeks cellaring and hours packaging do it for the love. It's not really saving money.

Homebrewing to me is very special and I to me that beer doesn't have aprice tag. That is something I made with my skill and you are lucky if I share it with you. But I don't look at it as cheap by any means. Not anymore than I look at the hand knitted mittens, scarf and toboggan than my wife made me as "cheap".

I don't think anyone ever said "cheap."

If your only goal is to save money on beer, probably best to just drink PBR.

I would probably never buy the quantity of Belgian beer, old ales, imperial stouts, etc. that I brew. At the price they cost, I certainly wouldn't give them away as freely as I do my homebrew.

Except: You aren't factoring in your labor let alone your equipment. Homebrew is some of the most expensive beer in the world.

I know we've argued this in other threads, but on a per beer basis I really do think it's economical. I could go buy 5 gallons of Chimay (approx 25 750ml bottles) at $8 each (plus tax). Or I could brew 5 gallons at +/- $50. I'll take the homebrew, as to me that's a bargain.

You have to do something with your time. You can't bank it up. So rather than the cost of your time this should be opportunity cost. If you have something better to do, go do it. If not, why not spend it brewing. It also takes time to go to the store and buy beer. No one factors that into the cost of bottled beer.

Equipment can be as expensive or cheap as you desire. From an overall hobby perspective, it can make the hobby expensive. On a per beer basis, I don't think equipment cost is applicable. The money is already spent, so it doesn't impact what it costs you to make that next beer. If you insist on including it, you should amortize it over every beer you've ever made which makes the per beer cost approach zero, eventually. Obviously, if you don't yet have the equipment that changes the analysis.

I can agree that I would never recommend that someone get into the hobby to save money on beer. But since I already have everything I need to make beer, the marginal cost of the next beer is pretty low. Which makes it economical for me.

I'll second the Breiss pilsen DME. It's the only extract I use. I've found it to be highly fermentable and extremely light in color. I don't think I've had anything get down to 1.006, but I'm typically starting out around 1.08 at the low end and consistently coming in at 1.012 or thereabouts.

I keg most of my beer, but I still bottle 4 - 6 cases of it a year as holiday gifts and such... so I'm definitely aware of how much effort goes into each process. That said, kegging wins hand down in my opinion.

No doubt.

In my case, I also have small kids underfoot most of the time. With kegging, no worries. With bottling it gets a little dicey. You can step away from a keg while it's filling without interrupting the process. You cannot step away from bottling.

Plus, I still have a case of bottles I need to label. With a keg, slap on the masking tape from the fermenter and you're good to go.

Even if it took the same amount of time as kegging (it doesn't) bottling is SO much more labor intensive it's not funny.

The posts will be different in the threading as it attaches to the keg, the poppets are different, the pressure relief valves are also different in some cases.

The posts have different overall heights, but the ball lock fittings are all the same.

Nowadays, with the universal poppet, some of the differences are less important. But, if you take them all apart at once you need to get the right posts and poppets back to the right kegs or they don't fit and seal correctly. I know from experience.

Converted pin-locks will be a different height and width from ball lock kegs. I believe shorter and squatter.